Survey: Employees blame you for their financial problems
January 29, 2010 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Money, Pay and benefits, Special Report
A recent Harris poll asked people who was at fault for their financial problems. The usual suspects popped up — Wall St., Congress, the President — and one surprise.
The poll also showed about three out of every 10 who responded said their employer was to blame for their financial problems. Many saw HR as the face and voice of the employer, since HR was perceived as the source of many policies that affect pay and benefits — and ultimately personal finances.
Clearly, there’s an anger out there that sometimes isn’t rational and that leads to finger pointing and blame. Consider these statistics from the same poll:
- The number of people who blame their employer is about the same as those who blame themselves for poorly managing their finances. That is, employees are as likely to blame you as they are to take responsibility for their own problems.
- People are more likely to blame their employer than they are to blame their family for wasteful spending or failure to save. The lesson is that it’s easier to put responsibility on outside forces than those in your own living room.
What to do? Explanations that the downturn has hit everyone else hard, too, are unlikely to change attitudes. Few people take comfort in what’s happening with “everyone else.”
The best HR can do is to fully explain the reasons behind company decisions that affect employee finances — for instance, cuts in benefits, pay or hours; pay-raise freezes; and furloughs. The worst approach, with regard to employee attitudes, is to say nothing. That’s seen as dictatorial and uncaring.
Interesting footnote from the survey: People under the age of 33 are more likely to blame themselves than their employers.
Go here to see some raw data from the survey.
January 31st, 2010 at 3:51 am
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February 1st, 2010 at 10:15 am
Why would you be surprised……….with the “entitlement mentality” promoted by the current administration and the anti-business sentiment that is always used by the President to mask his own failures is it any surprise the at least 3 our of 10 of our less informed citizens also blame employers as well. Only thing I am surprised at is that your survey doesn’t show anyone attaching blame to President Bush !
February 1st, 2010 at 11:04 am
Well said, Tom.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:31 am
Way to go, Tom! This mess we are in did not happen at the swearing in of the current President. I do believe he inherited the start of the situation from the previous President/administration.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:46 am
So, Tom, the trend in America for not taking responsibility for personal finances, health and wellness, the environment,etc, all that started with President Obama? You are living in a different America than me. I have owned a business since 2002 and worked in management for many years prior to that. The lack of personal responsibility among my employees is no greater now than it was 15 or 20 years ago. Blaming the current administration for this is shallow and not productive.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:48 am
The entitlement mentality has been around and promote long before this administration. Will this administration encourage it? That remains to seen. Politicians tend to say one thing and do another. Besides, what one administration does always affects the next and the next tries to change the “mistake” or do something different that affects the next administration. Reagan affected Bush Sr., Bush Sr. affected Clinton, Clinton affected Bush Jr., Bush Jr. affect Obama… and it will go on.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Interesting how quickly the subject changed to a rant against the current administration, while we have a culture where someone else is “always to blame.”
February 1st, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I’m not surprised that 3 out of 10 blamed their employers. Each of us needs to look real hard in the mirror. A majority of the financial issues people have are a result of their own poor decisions – i.e. borrowing from home equity to buy a new car, a vacation, fancy clothes, etc. People have not learned to spend within their means. Until they learn that, they will always blame someone else.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Everyone wants something for nothing, they don’t want to be told how to spend/save their money and they want to blame others when they don’t have enough.
We’ll just pass more laws to help the ignorant. They will have a bunch of children and teach them the same things and it will get worse so there will be more laws.
Maybe in schools, there should be a “How to budget” class since parents can’t seem to teach their children.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
All the time! I have been blamed for employees’ personal bankruptcies, court judgments for bad debts, nonpayment of child support; hardships in paying for daycare; etc. etc. despite the fact that I have gone way out of my way as a supervisor to get them the highest pay (which they never deserved anyway) and helped them get other financial assistance. I have even been hauled into court and had legal judgments against me personally from employees who blame me for all their financial woes. In other words, the disciplinary actions imposed for their tardiness and not showing up for work due to their financial condition further cost them money and financial hardship.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
We are a spoiled nation of people who feel they are entitled to a free lunch and then some. Our company does not pay for health benefits and I dug and dug for a “good” but reasonable health plan to offer my employees through payroll deduction. I found one…. $1400 a month for a family plan… affordable???? Hardly but I cant afford to supply it for my employees either. We have made our beds starting many many years ago. I feel for any President who thinks he or she is going to be able to undo what we have allowed to happen to our country. I can certainly understand why my employees would be among those who think that way. I had no choice but to do major cut backs this past year and instead of seeing the big picture, the fact that I had to do this or they would all be looking for work by next summer, doesn’t seem to matter to most of them. Again, we are so spoiled that we act like bratts and there is no quick solution to that mess.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Way to go Bonnie! The schools should teach “How to Budget”. They can’t learn the concept at home becuase their parents can’t budget.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Well let me start by saying I do not drive a fancy car (2004 Neon), I have not bought clothes in couple years for myself (my growing daughter I have), I do not have a second mortgage, nor did I refinance and take the equity out of my house.
Not all people are as ignorant as the majority of you think they are and still are having hard economic times. Unfortunately, over the past two years (new president at company). The first year, we had layoffs in our office while HIS office hired three new clerical people. We had more layoffs, pay raise freezes, bonuses cut and benefits discontinued while HIS office hired 4 more sales people for areas that were already covered the second year.
4 years ago when things started getting tight, I agreed to a bonus structure instead of a raise. Not being able to see the future, it worked well for me and the company at that time. Two years ago, the new president changed my bonus and I lost 1/3 my pay.
In the last couple years, housing values have dropped. I lost about 20K in equity since the economy came crashing down. The market has been iffy since 9/11-my 401K dwindled down to next to nothing.
Who do I blame? I don’t blame myself completely, I think as a single mom I have done well-struggling right now to stay afloat. And at this time looking for a second job.
Do I blame the company I work for-not the company as a whole but I believe the president is making some mistakes and hope in time he will fix them.
The administation/government-yes and no. I blame both Obama and Bush but mainly I blame all of us for not paying attention to what the government has been doing for the past 4-5 administrative terms of govenrment. If we had, we could have put a stop or change to the things that have hurt America-imports, lack of exports, the job markets, the financial districts-we didn’t pay attention.
And as far as teaching kids to budget-this isn’t their mess. My daughters (I have another who is an adult, who works and goes to U of M), have been taught how to pay bills, not to live outside their means, credit cards are for emergency’s and so forth, so instead of pointing fingers and wrapping everyone who is having a tough time into the same blanket-you should learn the facts about each person first.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:54 pm
What on earth does President Obama have to do with this, Tom? People have always and will always look for someone to blame. It is human nature. Perhaps, if the corporate leaders didn’t always flaunt their wealth in the faces of their workers, there would be no resentment or blame.
And maybe if everyone took responsbility for their own actions, there would be no misguided anger and the includes corporate leaders and employees.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:01 pm
I’m not sure that the following applies directly to the subject of employees blaming employers for financial problems, but it seems that maybe it begins and ends with the private sector, based on a news article re: federal employees’ pay since December 2007. I have not checked the validity or accuracy of this article, but according to a recent USA Today analysis the number of federal employees with six-figure salaries rose from 14% of the federal workforce to 19% during this time. Civilan execs in the defense department earing more than $150,000 went from 1,868 to more than 10,000. The DOT had one (1) person earning $170,000 in December 2007, and now has 1,690. The average federal salary is $71,206 compared with the private sector average of $40,331.
It would seem that Washington is more out of touch with us than we could ever imagine. While we, and I believe government employees on the local and state levels, are trying our best to explain why we have frozen pay, asked for furloughs, etc., the feds have acted like nothing is wrong and money truly continues to grow on trees.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Maggie, that might not be the best idea either, because schools don’t budget very well either so that could be trouble too.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:10 pm
KDK, I would be interested in seeing the data on those statistics. The private industry still pay their execs extremely well but I believe this is altogether a totally different type of conversation.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Perhaps this issue is less about attitude and more about current events. Certainly the employee is not to blame for stagnant wages, increasing health care and housing costs. These conditions are well outside of the control of the employee. But the employer may have some control over these elements, which may be why blame is being assessed to them. A secondary issue that may be contributing to the anger is the double talk. In one moment, Executive Management is explaining the reasons for costs cuts and wage freezess, or worse wage reductions and lay offs, only for these same employees who are struggling to read on the front page of the paper that those making the policy decisions are earning much more year on year. It’s the same issue a parent that smokes and/or drinks has when advising their children not to do such things. Again, leadership by example is the best answer. But at a minimum, those who have the power to make such decisions must be consistent in the message and execution of activity. Anything less is simply hyprocricy, and in today’s environment highly transparent hyprocricy.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:44 pm
To bring this back to a discussion on the merits of the survey, what are those things that we, as HR Professionals provide/lack to provide to employees to make them think this? 1. Pay – obviously the employees blame HR for the amount of their salary and their position or denial of a raise or increase. I would suspect it’s bigger amount Union groups than with non-Union but the underlying sentiment is still there. a. Do you provide communication to your employees so they understand your bottom line? b. Do you provide classes or training to help employees learn what they need in order to be promoted? c. Are your salaries in line with others in your industry? What is the salary differential between your top and lowest paid? 2. Benefits (health care) – If you are charging for health care at over 50%, what are you doing to help employees with these costs? FSA? Wellness? RFP on your health plans? a. Do you have a committee that works with the HR department in discussing issues related to Health/Dental or do you just shove it down their throats? b. What have you done to lessen the impact of the costs for employees and families? Do you offer “high” and “low” health choices? c. Do you offer classes on healthy living – do you have a gym at work? 3. Benefits (Pension/401(k)) – Do you simply offer these with no additional communication? Sure, it’s up to the employees to save and choose which funds to invest in, but what do you do to help them make the right decisions? a. Does the vendor offer anything? Can they give “brown bag” seminars on investing and saving? b. Does the vendor have a good website? c. Do you give yearly benefit statements? d. Do you “hold the employees hand” when it comes to enrolling and investing? e. Have you done an RFP recently to make sure you are offering the best provider out there? What are the fees associated with investing with your current provider compared to others? 4. Human Resources Department vs. Human Excuses Department – It’s way too easy for employees to blame HR. As professionals in the field, when we do certain things that affect employees we know why we did it – sometimes mandated from above, sometimes not. The key is communication with employees and letting them have their say so that it can be explained what is going on. This way, we don’t look like the “Evil HR” but rather a place where people can turn with their problems and ideas to make things better. While we may think we know it all, we don’t. We need to listen to our clients (that would be the staff you are covering) and be sure to do what we can to make their lives easier. We should be making it as easy as possible for the employees to do their work rather than have to worry and spend their time dealing with benefit situations. Remember, the more productive that they are, the better the end product which brings in more revenue. This kind of spiral helps everyone involved!
February 1st, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Right on Bonnie and Maggie. One of the best classes I had in high school was a basic business for families class in the 11th grade. It taught us how to open and manage bank accounts, create and maintain budgets, pay bills, save money, loans, credit, the concept of interest, etc etc. That was about 30 years ago. Our children need it.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:28 pm
KDK, I read that same article. I particularly noticed the HUGE raise in the number of Department of Labor employees they are putting on this year. ???? Do you think this might have something to do with the Unions? And this poll? Are the talking points for the next few months going to undermine the Employers as the bad guys so the Unions can come in as the “saviors”? I hate to be so pessimistic, and I never was before, but this Administration does so much double speak (blame Axelrod!) I can’t trust anything they say. One thing I noticed that hit me right between the eyes in Obama’s State of the Union speech. The student loans for college students would be forgiven (balance) after 20 years, unless they went into “public” work, then they would be forgiven after 10 years. What is with that????
February 1st, 2010 at 3:19 pm
I think Tom was stating “Only thing I am surprised at is that your survey doesn’t show anyone attaching blame to President Bush !” tongue in cheek! That seems to be our current President’s mantra.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Every administration blames the one before. However, in this case, Bush has a lot to answer for. But today, I was notified that my health insurance benefit renewal will increase 23%. Consequently, that will mean a reduction in benefit coverage or more employee contribution or both. So, either way the employees pay. In Washington, the parties are so very busy saying no to one another that nothing gets done, the costs continue to rise, the employees continue to pay, they get no raises, less benefits and each year they fall further and further behind. I personally have never seen a 23% raise nor have my employees. So, yes, they are mad. And yes, they are falling further behind each year because salaries do not rise proportionately with the cost of living. Upon whom should they place the blame?
February 1st, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Blame Obama, blame W., blame Wild Bill, blame A Thousand Points of Light, blame Morning in America, etc. I blame the old lady who wasted McDonald’s coffee, sued when she got burned because the coffee was hot! Oh and add in the jury that found in the idiot’s favor! We no longer practice HR, we practice HH…Hand Holding!
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:19 am
We have this from a few employees who act like working here is a “Personal Hostage Situation”. 2009 was the first year my company felt any effects from a bad economy as we had been profitable in all other past bad economic situations. A few people had spouses that got laid off and some got behind in their bills and we gave out personal loans to help. 2009 was also the first year in 40 years, we didn’t get raises and we had to lay off a few employees. We did receive a mid-year bonus and an end of year bonus that we didn’t make profit wise but because our fearless leaders wanted to give us something to show appreciation. There were several bitter employees who complained of not getting a raise but didn’t look at the big picture which is…..they could have easily been on the unemployment line with those that were laid off. With these types of employees, they will never be satisfied no matter what you do, yet, they make no moves to find something they’d consider better. They have great attendance records because they love coming to work to poison other employees with their negativity.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:02 am
The problem with the current administration is the bad and irrational choices they have made. The stimulus plan did not create new jobs, the bailouts did not save the car industry, there are banks still folding all over the US, and banks aren’t loaning any money anyways. So all you people who want to talk about the past- Enough! The current misguided and ineffective plan did not have a thing to do with “W” so lets get on with it. Our employer did a great job meeting with our employees and step by step reviewed all of the legislation and economic plans the current admin. put in office. The failures and terrible decisions were acknowledged by all employees- dems, repubs, and independents alike.
However, he did encourage all of us to write Washington, Reps, & Senators to try and stop the fall of more small businesses, spending, etc. Not one employee here blames the employer. Now that we are educated we know the difference.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:28 am
Actually, Josey, you are wrong. The Bush Adminstration and Henry Paulson initiated the bailouts starting with Fannie Mae/Mac and AIG. When Obama came in, he was obligated by law to finish the bailouts already put in place. But again, this has nothing to do with Obama. This has to do with attitude and the recession and the arrogance of the leaders of our corporations.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 am
We have quarterly “State of the Company” meetings so that everyone can see how good or not good we are doing. I think that is essential in this economy so employees understand why things are the way they are or not. It also helps them see our progress during the year. When house hold income has been decreased or one of them cut all together, people have to learn to sacrifice the unimportant things. Employees blaming employers for their personal financial situations has little to do with ANY politics, it has everything to do with how the employee manages their money.
On another note, yes, this administration has already taken a bad situation and made it worse by throwing money at it without a clear solution. Letting the banks and car companies fail would have been ideal, they’d have come back by fixing what made them fail which none of them have done because they had the easy way out.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 am
Home Girl-
I feel bad you are so misinformed. The Clinton Administration mandated that Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae lower the standards for obtaining a mortgage and make it possible for just about anyone to obtain one. There are multiple articles you can find from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc. documenting the Clinton Administration FORCING Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into this. George Bush entered into office with these policies in place unfortunatly.
I felt the need to educate you even if this is off topic.
The point was if you educate your employees on what is really happening that cannot blame the employer.
Hope you are straightened out now.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:42 am
Josey. Sorry. I totally disagree and hence I am not straightened out. But again, the President (regardless of their party affiliation) cannot create jobs. The attitude of employees and their need to blame has nothing to do with Obama, or for that matter Bush, as an author previously stated. Also, if you want things to change in DC, your vote would carry much more weight if used during the congressional and senatorial re-election seasons. Right now, our country is hurting and you can be quite sure that employers are using this to their advantage, by offering lower salaries, stagnating salaries, reducing benefits, and increasing work loads. That’s fine, but you can be sure when the economy changes, and it will, that employers will be slow to revert to pre-recession employee benefit levels. And that’s life. And that is why employees “blame” their employers for their financial well-being. And that is human nature.